


we meet again

by heartbeat_skipping



Category: If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio
Genre: Fix-it fic, Kissing, M/M, Post-Book, Reunion, angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:22:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartbeat_skipping/pseuds/heartbeat_skipping
Summary: so james is actually alive...and oliver goes to meet him. a heartfelt reunion.
Relationships: James Farrow/Oliver Marks
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45





	we meet again

And there he was, standing before me, beautiful as the day I met him.

I didn’t say anything as I walked over to him. We had decided to meet by the dock. A haunting place for a reunion, I knew. I knew he was thinking about Richard because I was too. When I finally came over to him, he didn’t react. His gaze was still fixed intently on the rippling water below. 

I don’t know what I had expected. For him to throw his arms around me, to declare that he had loved me from the day he had set eyes on me? I don’t know how long we stood there, shoulders nearly touching, remembering what it had been like all those years ago. Until he finally spoke.

“Oliver.”

I looked at him then. In the ten years since I’d seen him, he’d aged. But I was struck by how incredibly handsome he still was. I noticed a mark on his jaw that hadn’t been there before, the roughness of his skin, a little more faded than before. But there was still his piercing eyes and tufts of hair and the expanse of skin that met the line of his shirt. 

“James.”

How simple everything seemed now. I wanted to tell him everything, but a decades of yearning and anger and regret were taking form in my heart and I didn’t know where to begin. He stared at me and I stared back. How could I ever have thought I didn’t love him? How could I have ever even fooled myself to believe that? Because looking at him now…

Then, slowly, he placed his hand on my chest, fingers splayed. My mind jolted back to the room we shared together. It was after he’d hit me, when he’d told me he wanted to hurt the whole world, he had placed his hand on my chest the same way he was doing now. The moment ripped through me. My pulse still fluttered under his touch, still susceptible to his charm.

Then he dropped his arm.

“You’re alive,” I manage.   
“Yes,” he says, quietly. “I’m alive.”  
“I thought…” I pause, the immensity of the words overwhelming. “I thought I’d never see you again. When I read your note...I was. I’ve never felt such joy in my life.”  
He doesn’t say anything in response so I speak again. “Why James? Why did you pretend?”  
“You know why, Oliver. The guilt was eating me up. Some days I would wake up and all I would feel is this dragging darkness. I was weak, I couldn’t do it anymore.”   
I let him breathe, because he seems to have worked himself up after this, and is nearly panting from the struggle of the truth on his tongue.  
“And then, I really was going to do it. It felt like the only way out, you know? But I remembered the day you got arrested. The kiss we shared on stage. Sometimes, your face Oliver, is the only thing keeping me afloat.”

Instinctively, I reach out to hold his hand. It lies limp in my own. I bring his hand up, and turn his hand over so I can see his palm. 

“James,” I say, desperate. “Promise you’ll never think of doing it again.”  
He smiles then, and I feel the sun burst through my skin.   
“I cannot promise I will never think of it. It is almost a habit now. But I promise I’ll never do it. Not as long as you are with me.” 

He threads his fingers through my own and we stand there, fingers interlocked.

“You and Meredith-” he says finally.   
“You and Wren,” I say, almost defensively.  
He sighs. “I guess Richard was right.”  
I know what he’s talking about. What Richard said before James killed him.   
“Meredith was- I cared for her. And maybe I loved her. But it isn’t that I-” I don’t know how to explain. It is so messy, so complex.   
He laughs, shaking his head. “I love you too, Oliver.”  
I don’t have a chance to speak before he’s kissing me. Hard and passionately. And I feel the world has been brought to life, as if my whole life has been building up to this one moment and now its finally here, I don’t want to do anything else. It is different to the kiss we shared that day, that one felt fueled by fear and despair. This one, this one is fueled by pure, unadulterated love. And I feel it burst through me like a flame. When we break apart, I am breathing heavily.

“I love you so much James. I love you. I love you.” There is so much emotion in my voice I hardly recognise it.  
I cannot stop looking at him.   
“Come,” he says and he takes me to a shady spot under the trees. And we kiss again. And I run my hands under his shirt, feeling him, wondering how I ever denied myself this, denied myself Jame’s love.  
We pull apart. “Don’t stop,” I say, desperate, pulling him forward by his collar.   
“There is so much to say,” he says, concerned. “Later,” I say. “We have forever.”  
And then we’re kissing again, and nothing in the world matters. The birds tweeting, the sun shining, the grass beneath me. It all fades to nothing when he looks at me.


End file.
